5 Great Free Documentaries
As a follow up to Monday’s post, here is a list of five great documentaries instead of a link to several hundred. These were all suggested by friends.
Carts of Darkness – A 59-minute documentary on homeless guys in Canada who get their thrills by gunning stolen shopping carts down steep hills (and gunning plenty of beers), is online for our viewing pleasure. Directed in high def by Murray Siple, the film offers a window into this fringe microcosm set deep within the beautiful landscapes of Vancouver, with tunes by rock groups Black Mountain and Ladyhawk. Siple’s personal investment and attraction to the subject matter becomes apparent before the half-way mark, and I was surprised to see the film turn into a memorable character study that touches on big ideas without feeling polemic or hippie-dippity. If you have an hour to spare, and a mixture of This American Life, Jackass and Strange Brew sounds appealing, check it out in full after the jump.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster – Pop culture junkies tend to think of Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as entertainment figures. In Poughkeepsie, NY, back in the 1980s, filmmaker Christopher Bell and his brothers viewed them as heroes and became bodybuilders. Like the Hulkster, Mike and Mark Bell even turned to professional wrestling. Chris, a former staffer at Venice’s famous Gold’s Gym, doesn’t use anabolic steroids–he did try them once–but his heroes have and his brothers do, leading him to look deeper at this increasingly common practice.
Darkon – A feature documentary that follows the real-life adventures of an unusual group of weekend “warrior knights,” fantasy role-playing gamers whose live action “battleground” is modern-day Baltimore, Maryland, re-imagined as a make-believe medieval world named Darkon. These live action gamers combine the physical drama of historical re-enactments with character-driven storylines inspired in part by such perennial favorite fantasy epics like the legends of King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, and the saga of Conan the Barbarian. As role players, they create alter-egos with rich emotional, psychological, and social lives. They costume themselves and physically act out their characters exploits both in intimate court intrigue and campouts and in panoramic battle scenarios involving competitive strategies, convincingly real props, and full contact “combat.” Because real life so often gets in the way, its easy to understand these players’ motivations. Everybody wants to be a hero.
Confessions of a Superhero -A feature length documentary that chronicles the lives of three mortal men and one mortal woman who make their living working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard. The Hulk sold his Super Nintendo for a bus ticket to LA; Wonder Woman was a mid-western homecoming queen; Batman struggles with his anger, while Superman’s psyche is consumed by the Man of Steel. This deeply personal view into their daily routines reveals their hardships and triumphs as they pursue and achieve their own kind of fame.
Dig! – Seven years in the making and culled from 2000 hours of footage, DIG! plunges into the underbelly of rock n roll, unearthing an incredible true story of success and self-destruction. Anton A. Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols are star-crossed friends and bitter rivals – DIG! is the story of their loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and death threats, uppers and downers, and the delicate balance between art and commerce.